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The latest civil strife in Eastern Sudan has subsided leaving over a dozen people dead and over sixty people wounded. The unrest also cause a considerable damage to properties.

The infighting that started on May 18, 2020 is a continuation of at least four such conflicts that erupted in Eastern Sudan cities in the last two years. Last year a similar conflict caused the death of several people in Port Sudan.

In the recent bout of violence, stones, swords, knives, and sticks were used. Asked if guns were used in the fighting, a resident of Kessela told Gedab News, “there were very few gunshots… otherwise, the casualties would have been higher.”

The tension between the Beni-Amer and Nubians in the Eastern Sudan is many years old, but the recent infighting was triggered by quarrel between two people. But soon, after the quarrel of the two individuals pulled in “others who were on the edge and joined the fry, the violence got out of control.”

The conflicts has now stopped after heavily armed soldiers, backed by helicopters, swarmed the streets of Kessela.

A meeting to reconcile the two groups today didn’t bear fruit. It’s likely the leaders and elders of the two groups will continue meeting under the auspices of the local government of Eastern Sudan.

The Beni-Amer tribal confederacy is indigenous to the region and its extension are found across the border in Western Eritrea.

Together with other Eritreans, many have sought refuge in Eastern Sudan since the mid 196s. They left their land and fled to the East after King Haile Selassie of Ethiopia started to implement a scorched earth policy in Western Eritrea. Ethiopian troops and fighter planes had burned and torched hundreds of villages and killed thousands of Eritrean villagers.

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Mahmud Saleh

Selam Awatistas
Firstly, thanks to Negarit news, this is objective reporting, there is no implications of Eritrea, as has been the templates in other similar regional news reporting.
Secondly, as you have correctly stated, the conflict is as old. The first such an eruption, I believe, was in the mid-1980s, when refugees from the war-torn Western and the Southern parts of Sudan were brought to Eastern Sudan. Some also arrived in search of jobs.
Thirdly: What would appear to be as expected clashes between cultures in areas of contact, which should have been handled by authorities and civil societies have often been exploited by hidden forces.
a/ At times of political and economic, crises, elements in the regimes of Sudan have incited social unrest, usually appearing to defend the interest of the other parts of Sudan as legitimate citizens of Sudan more than the interests and concerns of the people of Eastern Sudan, who in fact are the indigenous inhabitants of that part of Sudan, the Beni-Amers and the Handendwas, who also have family extensions in Eritrea.
b/ Hence, the Nubian settlers of Western and Southern Sudan have maintained that the Beni-Amers are refugees. They say the “refugees” have monopolized businesses and administration positions in Eastern Sudan. The Beni Amer and Hadendwa have lived in Eastern Sudan long before the colonial border was drawn, and as you have correctly pointed it out, many Tigrayt speaking families and other Eritreans who are collectively called “Beni-Amer” had been crossing the border to Eastern Sudan, mainly to Kasala and Port Sudan, since the late 1960s . By the way, in its correct use, Ben-Amer is a tribe within the Tigre people, but the Nubians are calling anyone who speaks Tigrayt Ben-Amer. They call for their deportation to Eritrea.
c/ The Ben-Amer, however claim they have been in Eastern Sudan long before the declaration of the independence of Sudan. The current governor of Kassala is a retired high-ranking military officer, of Ben-Amer descent.
d/ The cause seems a familiar one, where social injustices and the question of citizenship intersect and needs a government that understand this immense challenge.
e/ As of today many reconciliation efforts and agreements have been tried but non seems to have worked. Currently, the Beni-Amer (including clans of the Habab) have refused to engage the Nubians for dialogue. They say they are tired and fed up of broken treaties and promises by the Nubian side. As a counter offer, they are now asking for the Nubians to leave Eastern Sudan.
f/ Many Sudanese commentaries coming from the Eastern part of the country and social media activities suggest that there are third parties that are fanning the conflict. Elements form the fallen regime of Omar Al-Bashir, international Islamists and Qatar are the suspected actors often mentioned.
g/ The situation needs a government delegations that monitors it permanently and the encouragement of all affected sides to sit for charting out a lasting peace based on the ideas of citizenship and equitable sharing of power and resources.

Aklil

You write “The infighting that started on May 18, 2020”
May 18 is still five days ahead!